Kukla's Korner Hockey

Chelios was a dominant Hawk from 1990-99. While those teams never won a Stanley Cup, they were powerhouse clubs with Chelios the nasty backbone. He won two Norris Trophies during his time in Chicago and rarely lost battles.

Certainly the Hawks will honor Chelios at some point with a Heritage Night, but the bigger question is should his No. 7 be retired and hung from the rafters?

Comments

As much as I like him, I can’t see him having his number retired in Det. He was a great player, but he wasn’t an Yzerman/Howe/Sawchuck for the Wings. He was for the league though.

Tough, because he was a player that deserves to have his number retired and some honor bestowed upon him, but he played with three teams (not including ATL), all original six teams, all for a significant amount of time.

How do you honor a player like that?

Posted by
Chris from NOHS
from Columbus, OH/Grand Rapids, MI on 09/08/10 at 03:43 PM ET

Detroit won’t retire Cheli’s number and I think CHI should drop this idea or risk looking like Colorado. After all, Cheli picked the Wings front office over Chicago’s. That should tell you HIS mindset.

Posted by
Wings_Fan_In_KC
from ...somewhere southwest of The Motor City... on 09/08/10 at 04:17 PM ET

yeah,I meant that Chi just wanted to stick it to the RW,or copy them,god knows they arent original

Um… where in that article does it say that Chicago thinks Detroit should retire his number along with them? Actually it doesn’t even say anything about definitely retiring his number period, let alone who else should. I’ve read it three times now, and I’m not seeing that anywhere.

Even the comments are just discussing whether or not they should retire his number for his time with Chicago. I’m very confused and thinking I missed some context here…

I see DET retiring #5, but not #24. It would make sense for Chicago to go ahead and enshrine Cheli, even though he played less than half his career in the town. God knows they have the rafter space for it. They might be A LITTLE like Colorado in doing so, but lets not forget that Cheli is from Chicago and feels a closeness to the city. If Mikey Mo played in Detroit for 10 years in the middle of a hall of fame career (and if the ceiling had little dangling from it other than Turco’s jock straps), I could see a similar question here.

Posted by
Wings_Fan_In_KC
from ...somewhere southwest of The Motor City... on 09/08/10 at 05:20 PM ET

Considering he was raised in Chicago and became a star there, while having many good seasons would be a consideration. The fact he had his best seasons in Detroit and won cups there is the major reason not to retire his number. As for leaving Chicago because of Dollar Bill Wirtz doesn’t reflect on what is going on today. Kind of like saying Gordie Howe’s number shouldn’t be retired because he played for Bruce Norris who ran the team into the ground and him off to the WHA. Or Ted Lindsay who was traded away. Funny how so many forget what happened in Detroit from 1955 to 1982. Believe me Chicago Fans know what happened in Detroit during that period. NOTHING!